OK, our country is 235 years old tomorrow and maybe the old girl is starting to show her age. Too much good living is beginning to take it’s toll. Still it’s the best place on earth and I’m glad to call her my country. What we too often forget is that our neighbor to the north celebrates her birthday just three days earlier. It is such a blessing to have that thin red line of Canadians protecting that border. These days no thinking Canadian would want to storm that border looking for a better life. They’ve been doing better than us for years now. The most they might want is to cut a few years off the wait for medical treatment. No, it’s a great blessing to have Canada to the north and populated with people wiling to stay there. The Coots want to wish our Canadian neighbors a very happy birthday.

Canada Day draws crowds from coast to coast

Here in the states, the fourth of July means eating- mostly stuff you cook on the grill in your backyard or at the park. In case you don’t have enough family favorites – or maybe you are looking for something new, check our these recipes.

Great Summer Cooking Ideas

All the odd weather (and global warming is wrecking havoc this year because there is so much snow that people are still skiing on the fourth. It’s the best ski season in years. IF it keeps up maybe we can ski all year long.

Not only is this a happy birthday weekend for Yanks and Canadians, it seems that there is actually some good news this week. Let’s start with a lucky Brit who survived a nasty accident during a trip to Germany. I got Google to translate this headline but it didn’t come out so well. Anyway, the lucky kid is 17 and is planning to spend the rest of his life avoiding archery ranges.

These is good economic news too. The business of building bespoke accordions is booming, attracting accordion aficionados to Italy. If you missed this breaking trend, wake up and place your order. Each one is made to order and takes months. You don”t want to let that guy down the street be the first in your neighborhood.

An Accordion Epicenter Shrinks and Thrives

But the piece de resistance this week is a stunner. You know how everybody says that the reason that the schools are so bad is that we aren’t spending enough money? Well it turns out to be a lie. When California curt school spending, test scores went up. Maybe with a few more cuts California could get back to number one again instead of being at the bottom. I makes you wonder what else might improve if we cut spending? Got any ideas?

Public schools see paradox of lower funding, higher test scores

Happy Fourth of July and Canada Day to all. Eat big and stay out of range of the fireworks

Happy birthday to the canadian citizens! I have heard that there are a lot of wonderful ceremonies, my brother has been living there for a couple of years, and he has shown me some photographs about the celebration!

Lili,
This post was originally posted at a more appropriate month but we have a service that recycles some of the old posts from time to time and they just don’t understand the calendar. Anyway, the Coots just love Canada. For many years it was because the US dollar was stronger and Canada’s socialized medicine made us feel superior. These days Canada seems to be getting back on course. They set a good example. There is nothing like having a neighbor that is so much like us but still exotically different.